As is the case with any other mobile or desktop operating system, the performance of an Android Operating System (OS) general starts to diminish with the progression of time. Operating systems for devices such as mobile phones are designed to be light and fast so as to keep up with the growing demands of their users and cater to the needs of people on the move while giving them access to everything. In order for Android phone device owners to have the best of this it is important to engage in a little house keeping. If you happen to have noticed your Android phone lacking in performance lately in terms of slower speeds, particularly if it is loaded with lots of applications from Google Play Store then this article has just the right tips to get your phone from slow and draggy to fast and upbeat.

1. Reduce the Number of Widgets

Most people mistakenly think that widgets are applications that only run once phone users choose to activate them however this is a gross misunderstanding since widgets are programs that are always active and constantly run in the background. Whereas some phone users employ widgets to keep track of things such as important dates, the weather or Forex rates other Android users use it for functions such as “extended control” that allows them quick access to essential configurations like the activation of GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Though widgets have their uses and advantages it is important to keep in mind that having too many of them running in the home screen can cause performance related problems particularly with regards to speed.

2. Remove Unwanted Applications:

Every application installed to a phone or any Android device for that matter not only takes up storage space but also runs background processes. The more storage space occupied by apps on your Android device or alternatively the more background processes running has a direct relationship to the speed and performance of your device.

To avoid slowing down your Android device due to the storage of unimportant applications and their running of background processes it is important to exercise caution when installing applications. What this means is that you should avoid installing apps that you barely use. The speed and performance of your Android device can also be significantly increased by disabling or uninstalling applications that you have on your phone but never or hardly use. Doing so not only helps you optimize your device but also enables you to clear up some much needed space for those important applications that you actually need and use on a regular basis.

3. Pause Syncing

Syncing is a great feature which allows users to merge their data with Google Servers. This feature enables users to get notifications wherever they receive new incoming mail or application update notifications. In order to enable services such as those mentioned above your device refreshes at every present interval (for example: mail checks are conducted every 5 – 10 minutes for new incoming mail) which is great except for the fact that this action eats in to an Android devices performance. To solve this problem, devices owners can keep the Sync feature off for unneeded services or just have it active when they need to upload or transfer materials to Google Servers.

4. Know Your Device

The first and most important thing you need to know is that it is crucial for you to be intimately familiar with your Android device. You should make it a point to know and or learn about the capabilities and drawbacks of your phone so as to avoid situations or instances whereby you unknowingly overload or burden your device with resource hungry applications which end up negatively affecting your device’s performance at your expense.

5. Avoid Live Wallpapers

Most if not all Android phone users love the live wallpaper feature. However it is important for phone users to know that poorly designed wallpapers requires higher CPU cycles to run and as such cause phones or android device batteries to drain much faster. Every time an android phone owner running the live wallpapers feature activates their home screen they not only run their applications but also their live wallpaper.

6. Update Applications

It is important for Android users to ensure that they update installed applications on a regular basis using Google Play Store. The main reason behind this is that most developers make modifications to existing applications so as to enable their efficient and effective functioning. In this regard, bugs in previous versions of released applications are fixed and new features are added so as to allow for better faster performance while decreasing the chances of such applications crashing your device.

7. Update Your Android

Those of you who have yet to update your Android devices to the latest firmware should do so in order to ensure that you are able to use and enjoy the latest and most optimum operating system changes introduced periodically. Google Play Store provides improvements to each new update of the Android OS, including releases that ensure high performance speed and connectivity, stability and other new user friendly features. Tablet owners may find it interesting to know that their devices can now also operate on Jelly Bean and ICS. System Updates (under “About Phone”) allows tablet users to update their devices till Android 4.1.

8. Turn off Animations

So what do we mean by animations here? Well you may have noticed that your devices screen actually fades in and out as you switch between tasks or activate certain apps. To view this feature in action all you need to do is go to Settings > Developer Options > Window Animation Scale > Animation Scale 10 x then select Windows Animation Scale once more to observe the fade in effects in slow motion. If you select Animation Off, this disables the pervious fade in effects and as such the screen merely snaps to position without the pervious visual effects. Transition Animation Scale can be turned off in the same manner as that mentioned above. If you happen to be a heavy device user then you will probably observe a noticeable change in your devices performance once the Animations feature is turned off.

9. Disable Unnecessary Applications

The “performance assistant” in the Android ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform was introduced to help Android device users disable applications that they do not need. The process of disabling an application is very different from the process of uninstalling an application. Uninstallation requires the complete removal of an application’s files while disabling an application does not necessitate the removal or deletion of any of the apps files. The option of disabling an app is useful to Android users that require to run certain applications on occasion but do not use those apps on a regular basis. When an application is disabled it is not shown on the app try or the home screen but users can re enable them whenever they need them.

10. Use a High Speed Memory Card:

An external memory card can best be described as an alternative storage space for devices that allow for such a feature. Android devices with low internal memory are able to boost or increase their storage space through the use of high capacity storage cards. Such cards not only offer their users high memory capacity but also speed. High speed memory card users can get between 2 to 32 GB worth of memory space to support read or write operations. Android phone users seeking high phone performance are typically advised to opt for Class 6 or 10 memory cards.

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